Reporting Kinda Live From….

…. the Under World of Pain and Misery. How's that for drama? I even impressed myself with that one. Because I was bored with starting to feel less pain, I backed off the pain killers at the same time I started the ONE exercise I was assigned by my Physical Therapist. This angered every single one of the Deities of The Spine. Once again, I lay here staring at The Secret Cabin's kiln-dried, tongue and groove cedar ceiling welcoming Death. Alas. No reason for the "alas" other than I think it adds to the drama. On the bright side, I have a photo shoot coming up. I know they're just x-rays but I like calling it a photo shoot. I want to crack a joke about being radiant and radiation but I just caved in and took a pain pill which can kick in any time now. I hope. You know, I'm thinking the pain pill goes for the brain first because I got nothing on the radiant and radiation joke. Okay, please talk amongst yourselves again and have a good rest of the weekend.

Still alive ….

….and feeling better. I got some pills. Again, without having to push The Husband down in the parking lot. And one of the three different kind of pills even works. I don't like taking pills but I really couldn't gut it out it any longer. As a quick little pat my own back, the NP I saw last week was quite impressed with how I essentially don't take anything for pain. Everyone thinks herbs aren't really anything but that's where medicine came from before there were labs. Laboratories. If you say that in a scary, mad scientist kind of way, la-bor- a-tories, it's a really fun word. Anyway, I tried to switch back over to the herbs yesterday but the Evil Back Spasm Spirit appears to still be in there. We have to wait until it gets bored and leaves. I also was referred to physical therapy so I have a physical therapy appointment tomorrow. Hopefully, they have some special exorcism powers. Oh, do you think they'll saddle me up with some heat pads. That would be really nice. I like stretching exercises too. Oh, stretching exercises AFTER being saddled up with heat pads. We'll see. I did score a prescription for massage therapy too but upon further investigation, our insurance will not send in any financial assistance troops for massage therapy. What I need to do is get a massage therapy table and train the feLIONs to march on my back. We'll have to trim their nails first. If I need a deep tissue massage, The Husband could sprinkle some catnip on my back and the feLIONs will have me worked over in no time. That could get scary though, we've got a couple of mean drunks amongst us here at The Secret Cabin.

The Sun is out and I want to shut this down and go enjoy the day but first a little systems snap shot for you: The PV system is floating. The wash machine is running. The heaters are all closed up and "sweating" heat into the cabin. The wood heater water loop goes into the top of the tank. That loop is at about 130 degrees. The temp of the water at the top of the tank is 119. The solar thermal water loop is at middle of the tank. That loop is currently 90. The middle of our tank is 88 degrees. The bottom of the tank is 67. I am using a little bit of warm water for the wash machine. Even though I'm using hot water, the tank temps and loop temps are holding steady. The bottom of the tank has gotten 2 degrees cooler since starting the wash machine. We have noticed that with the solar thermal system running, when we use hot water, the tank temp maintains or even raises, if there's a lot of Sun, whereas when we use hot water with just the wood heater loop making hot water, the temp in the tank goes down. Prior to the solar thermal hot water system going live, I would go by the middle of the tank temp. I like to see that number in the mid-90's. In the past, the 90's has always been enough hot water for two hot showers. Not splashing around being a waste-a-roo but two decent, don't need to work up a sweat trying to get cleaned up showers. Okay, time to shake off all those crazy numbers and go enjoy the day.

Stubborn Evil Back Spasm Spirits

I'm still dealing with back spasms from Hell. We did go to our local Urgent Care. They have PA's and NP's now. You don't even have to see a doctor. I saw a PA. PA's must be trained to listen. Everyone was very nice and I secured a bottle of Flexiril without having to push The Husband down in the parking lot. Unfortunately, Flexeril and I don't mix. It actually made things worse. Instead of stopping the back spasms, it riled up my whole body and I ached all over clear down to my joints. The drowsy stupor was very unpleasant and made me wonder if that is what a bad trip was like. I felt as if my body was fighting the medication.

I'm in a lot of pain right now, really exhausted, and just not thinking very well so I'm going to take this week off from the blog. Please talk amongst yourselves and have a good week.